Fillmore will overhaul city, school agreement

The Fillmore City Council and the Fillmore Unified School District board have decided to overhaul the 1993 cooperative agreement under which they share each other’s facilities, equipment and some staff for the benefit of the community.

“We need to update this thing,” said Michael Bush, the school district’s assistant superintendent of business services, at a joint meeting Tuesday night of the council and the board. “This is the first time we’re saying, ‘We’re ready. Let’s do this.’ ”

Originally entered into on Feb. 2, 1993, the agreement’s stated goal is for “the district and the city to maximize the taxpayer resources by jointly developing and utilizing facilities” and “to ensure maximum community use of public facilities.”

Those facilities include gymnasiums, sports fields and the Senior Center, said Interim City Manager Bill Bartels. The agreement also covers joint use of equipment and some staff, Bartels said.

Based on the original agreement, additional joint agreements were entered into over the years, such as a park lease covenant, which former City Manager Roy Payne and former School District Superintendent Mario Contini signed on May 26, 1999.

But the council and the district say it is time to thoroughly update the entire 1993 document.

“The direction that I’m getting from the council is it’s time to take the whole package of agreements and look at it for a thorough overview of what we’re trying to do,” Bartels said in an interview. “Dr. Bush and I feel confident in our relationship to be able to take this long-standing agreement and modernize it.”

The council and the school board agreed that by the next joint meeting in late June, their staffs will have reviewed the agreements and come up with a proposed draft, reviewed by their attorneys, to update them.

Bartels said that while such joint agreements are common throughout the state, “this one is unique to this community and has really lent itself to the strength of this community. It’s an acknowledgment that we have limited resources within the community and that the two organizations acknowledge that the community as a whole make use of those facilities in that cooperative way.”